ENERGIZER SENIOR TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

November 6, 1998

Hale Irwin

HALE IRWIN: Boy, the way I played today, it could have been just about any big score. There's all the good things that I did yesterday. I sure didn't do them today. I think -- I shouldn't say think. I know I'm very thankful for only 73. That could have been a big one. But, having said that, great position with two rounds to play. I'm right there where you might ideally want to sit and wait yourself. Today is over, and thankfully. So I certainly was not as comfortable on the golf course today. Not just in temperature and physical comfort, I just didn't a hit the ball very well. I didn't drive it well. My iron game was just horrible. I'm really trying hard to think of the good things today. I'm really trying. I didn't putt well. I didn't hit the irons well. I didn't hit the tee shots well. So pretty much takes care of most of the game.

HALE IRWIN: I probably had half a dozen of those rounds this year; whereas, last year I didn't have those. You know, we talk about last year, this year and trying to find some comparisons and using a fine-toothed comb, but I don't feel like I fought some of the rounds this year as I had last year, such as the first round at the U.S. Senior Open, such as the first round at Kanaapali as the round that I had at Boone Valley. But I've had four or five rounds this year that have been the antithesis of what the year would indicate. But you're going to have those rounds. It just seems like they are glaring after so many good rounds. The lesser ones just stand out so strongly that it's kind of hard to forget that it's just a round of golf, and 73 is not all that bad in this kind of weather. But at the same time, it's not that good either.

HALE IRWIN: I thought the course played harder. Yesterday I was more in a rhythm. Today I was not. You get in a rhythm on the course, regardless of the conditions, and you're going to be able to play, and that was not the case today. Although, I started fairly solidly today and I had a chance to really extend the lead there for a while. I know I had a three-shot lead at one stage and had a putt to make it 4. And from that point on, I just sort of started backing up and missed a number of seven to ten-foot putts that I made yesterday. That's the primary difference.

HALE IRWIN: Birdied at 2; hit a very nice drive and 5-iron second to within seven feet of the hole and made that. Then I bogeyed the 7th hole when I drove it into the left trap. I just had to wedge it out. And, actually, I made a nice eight-foot putt for a bogey, so that could have been a double. But I saved that. And made a birdie at the 8th and hit it short of the green, pitching it up just short of the hole and making that. Bogeyed 9, hit a 3-iron through the green and pitching it past the hole about ten feet and missing that. Bogeyed 11, hitting a very poor iron into the front bunker, again, missing about an eight-foot par putt. 2, I hit a very poor 3-iron into the left trap, and missed a ten-foot par putt. I birdied 16 from about four feet, hitting a wedge, second shot. Hit a good shot at 17, about seven feet. Missed that birdie and then made a great save at the 18th hole after hitting a drive in the left rough and over the green and having to stand in the bunker. Frank Beard, give him an at this point on ESPN: Let's-go-back-and-see-it-shot.

HALE IRWIN: Well, yeah, I think any 73, 75, 77s, those kind of things, you always feel like you've shot yourself in the foot. Whereas, yesterday's round was so very good, today's was just the opposite. I'm really approaching it like I've had a 69 and 70, and I think any player in this field would be delighted with those scores. So that's the way I'm looking at it. Yesterday was sort of a bonus, and today was taking the bonus back and rounding them off and rounding them down, you come up with 5-under. And I'm in good shape. Playing in this kind of weather, you really never know if it's you or you just caught the wind gust. You're a little off-balance most of the time. I think that's the way many of us are playing. It's not that the course is playing so impossibly difficult. It is playing hard. It's just that variable. You never quite know -- like yesterday, I thought the wind was steadier. It may have been stronger. It may have been just as uncomfortable temperaturewise. But today was variable. It was different gusts, and that's the hard part.

HALE IRWIN: Have I? No, I haven't really paid much attention. I don't think I've played with Ray since the U.S. Senior Open. So I haven't paid much attention. He hasn't called me up and I haven't called him. The times I've seen him play, he's doing better he's -- he has a good feel for this course, as is Albus. Three or four years ago they had that big playoff. I think those two guys feel comfortable on this course. They have had some success. Raymond, he's a solid player. He's been off his game and he hasn't played a lot. And when you're off and you don't play a lot, how are you going to flush it from the system and get it back again.

HALE IRWIN: Yeah, there's probably a few more than that, but those are the ones that you tend to remember. You know, the 77 at Riviera was bad. You know, the 80 at the U.S. Open at Olympic Club was pretty bad. The 73 at Kanaapali was probably as bad of a round as I've played on that course, given the conditions. I didn't shoot any of those in the first part of the year, in the second party think it's just a little more difficult, just sort of -- let's get this thing over with and done and try to relax and re-charge for next year. It's been at a pretty high level of play, a pretty intense level of play and that's pretty hard to sustain over two years time. I'm just starting to feel a little on the worn side a little. Not a lot but just enough to look forward to the upcoming months.

HALE IRWIN: I'm just trying to get through this year. I'll probably end up doing about the same. But I'd like -- it's just you can't do it. I'd like to pace myself in the summer but you can't do it with the way the tournaments are scheduled. I personally would like to take a little time and enjoy the summer, it's just when they throw in some big events; so it kind of goes against what you'd like to do, the ideal, anyway.

HALE IRWIN: I don't know about soon, but when you're playing as I'm playing you don't contemplate seriously about taking that kind of time off. I think we all would like to do that. But there's just too many things going on for me to contemplate changing my schedule appreciably. I don't see I don't see it next year my design business is sort of the variable right now. We're going to be very busy so we'll see how that impacts the schedule. Right now I think I'm going to be doing about the same.

HALE IRWIN: We've got five under construction right now and there will be -- we'll be starting up at least that many next year so it will be pretty busy.

HALE IRWIN: Thank you.